Meditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many years sinceMeditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many yeares since

and therefore whosoever believe not in Christ Jesus, and his death, nor do embrace and cling unto it, with all the desires of a most ardent affection, cannot possibly be said to know him, because however they may have some few, broken, faint, and floating notions of him, yet he is not by this knowledge proposed unto the Will, as its sole and greatest good (for then he could not but be embraced) but is in good earnest by the practic judgment undervalued ⟨p. 140⟩and disesteemed, in comparison of other things, whose goodness and convenience unto sensual and corrupt nature, is represented more clearly. Many men may be able to discourse of the death of Christ, after a speculative, and scholastical manner, so profoundly, as that another who truly believes in him, shall not be able to understand it: and yet this poor soul that desires to know nothing but him, that accounts all things else dung in comparison of him, that endeavours to be made conformable unto him in the communion and fellowship of his sufferings, that can in Christs wounds see his safety, in Christs stripes his Medicine, in Christs anguish his peace, in Christs Cross his triumph; doth so much more truly know him, as a man that is able safely to guide a ship through all the coasts of the world, doth better know the regions and situations of Countries, than he who by a dexterity that way is able to draw most exact and Geographical descriptions.¹ Boys may be able to turn to, or to repeat several passages of a Poet or Orator more readily than a grounded Artist, who yet notwithstanding knows the elegance and worth of them far better: and a Stage-player can haply express with greater life of passion the griefs of a distressed ⟨p. 141⟩man, than he can himself, although altogether ignorant of the weight and oppression of them.

and therefore whosoever beleeve not in Christ Iesus, and his death, nor doe imbrace and cling unto it, with all the desires of a most ardent affection, cannot possibly bee said to know him, because however they may have some few, broken, faint, and floating notions of him, yet hee is not by this knowledge propos'd unto the Will, as its sole and greatest good (for then he could not but be embraced) but is in good earnest by the practick judgment undervalued ⟨p. 140⟩